Cited by 1,416Motor Control and AdaptationSports and Physical Education ResearchSport Psychology and Performance

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 339 of the 339 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 60 of the 320 sources its claims cite were checked for support.

Augmented visual, auditory, haptic, and multimodal feedback in motor learning: A review

Open access
Sigrist, Roland, Rauter, Georg, Riener, Robert, Wolf, Peter·2013·Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

Abstract

It is generally accepted that augmented feedback, provided by a human expert or a technical display, effectively enhances motor learning. However, discussion of the way to most effectively provide augmented feedback has been controversial. Related studies have focused primarily on simple or artificial tasks enhanced by visual feedback. Recently, technical advances have made it possible also to investigate more complex, realistic motor tasks and to implement not only visual, but also auditory, haptic, or multimodal augmented feedback. The aim of this review is to address the potential of augmented unimodal and multimodal feedback in the framework of motor learning theories. The review addresses the reasons for the different impacts of feedback strategies within or between the visual, auditory, and haptic modalities and the challenges that need to be overcome to provide appropriate feedback in these modalities, either in isolation or in combination. Accordingly, the design criteria for successful visual, auditory, haptic, and multimodal feedback are elaborated.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

This review synthesizes evidence on augmented visual, auditory, haptic, and multimodal feedback for motor learning, emphasizing that effectiveness depends on task complexity, learning phase, and feedback design. It concludes that concurrent feedback can aid complex tasks early but may create dependency, and that systematic comparisons across modalities and designs are still lacking.

Key findings

  • For simple tasks, concurrent visual feedback often improves acquisition but harms retention, consistent with the guidance and specificity-of-learning hypotheses; for complex tasks, concurrent visual feedback more often helps, especially in early learning, and may reduce cognitive load.
  • Haptic position control is generally not advantageous; one cited study found that preventing errors prolonged learning by about 15 times. Error augmentation/amplification can outperform guidance, and one walking study reported 26% faster adaptation to a transiently amplified force field.
  • Auditory feedback through alarms, sonification, and error sonification can support learning; a shooting study using error sonification in 50% of 440 shots across 11 sessions over 4 weeks found retention benefits at 2, 10, and 40 days. Multimodal feedback is promising, but concurrent audio-haptic or audio-visuo-haptic feedback for motor learning had not been investigated.
  • Design matters: abstract visualizations suit tasks with few relevant variables; natural or virtual-teacher displays may help but can overwhelm; feedback frequency should fade or be self-controlled; feedback should target key features and avoid task-irrelevant errors.

Methods

  • Narrative review of motor learning literature on augmented feedback, covering visual, auditory, haptic, and multimodal modalities, with definitions and theoretical framing.
  • Mainly reviews studies with healthy participants; patient studies are included only partly for broader design discussion.
  • Organizes evidence by modality and task complexity, discusses design criteria, and proposes future directions; no primary experiment or meta-analysis is reported.

Limitations

  • The paper states that general conclusions cannot be drawn because movement tasks are diverse and lack systematic evaluation within classes; comparisons between concurrent and other feedback strategies are often missing; feedback designs within a modality are rarely evaluated before cross-modal comparisons; and multimodal feedback research is still early.
  • The review is limited to mainly healthy subjects; patient rehabilitation effects are beyond its scope and only partly considered.
  • Evident from the text: many studies did not assess retention or learning, especially auditory alarms, vibrotactile sports feedback, and some simulator or haptic studies; haptic feedback has rarely been compared against other modalities; and auditory display design and interpretability are not systematically evaluated.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.3758/s13423-012-0333-8

Cites

339 of 339 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

127 No full text of the sources · 74 Own interpretation · 36 No basis given · 24 Sources not found · 24 Not checked yet · 19 Supported · 19 Supported so far · 17 Partly supported · 3 Couldn’t confirm · 1 Own result · accuracy not yet measured

Show all 182 claims

  • Probably not a substantial claim. 62
  • It may state two separate claims as one. 118
162 of 162
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The best way to provide augmented feedback is a matter of controversy.

    “However, discussion of the way to most effectively provide augmented feedback has been controversial.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Prior studies have mainly used simple or artificial tasks with visual feedback.

    “Related studies have focused primarily on simple or artificial tasks enhanced by visual feedback.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Recent technical advances allow researchers to study complex realistic motor tasks and to use auditory, haptic, or multimodal feedback.

    “Recently, technical advances have made it possible also to investigate more complex, realistic motor tasks and to implement not only visual, but also auditory, haptic, or multimodal augmented feedback.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Intrinsic feedback is always present during motor learning.

    “Intrinsic or internal feedbacks-that is, sensory afferences-are always present during motor learning.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The effect of error visualization type on visual augmented feedback effectiveness has not been systematically evaluated.

    “In general, the impact of the type of error visualization-that is, of the actual and the desired motor behavior-on the effectiveness of visual augmented feedback has not been systematically evaluated so far.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Knowledge about how to design simulators with augmented feedback to exploit their potential is still limited.

    “However, to date, knowledge about how to design simulators including augmented feedback in order to exploit their potential is still limited.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Most concurrent feedback is displayed visually because this is seen as natural and easy.

    “Most commonly, concurrent feedback is displayed visually, since this is, at first glance, the most natural and easiest way.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Many motor tasks are impossible or much harder without vision.

    “Many motor tasks are impossible or, at least, are much harder to perform without vision-for example, walking on an uneven terrain, hitting a tennis ball, or skiing.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The optimal rate for fading feedback is usually unknown.

    “However, the optimal fading rate is commonly unknown.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Different visualizations have rarely been compared systematically in motor learning.

    “A systematic comparison of different visualizations has rarely been done in the field of motor learning”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Out-of-phase coordination tasks require controlling two independent effectors according to a common movement plan.

    “The challenge of out-of-phase coordination tasks is that two independent effectors have to be controlled in accordance with a common movement plan.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Most sports are cognitively mastered in response to visually perceived information.

    “Although auditory information has an impact on performance, most sports are cognitively mastered in response to visually perceived information.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Listening to auditory displays is less common than viewing visual displays.

    “Applied functions and metaphors have to be carefully selected, since listening to auditory displays is less common than viewing visual displays.”
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    Position control is ineffective for motor learning because the central nervous system loops between proprioceptive input and motor output are not strengthened.

    “Position control is assumed to be ineffective for motor learning because those motor control loops in the central nervous system between proprioceptive input and motor output are not strengthened even though they are important especially for improving dynamic tasks (Shadmehr & Mussa-Ivaldi, 1994).”
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    A ceiling effect impeded learning in both vibrotactile and visual feedback conditions in expert rowers.

    “However, a ceiling effect was present and was assumed to impede learning in either condition (van Erp et al., 2006).”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Pitch changes of 10% are noticeable by almost every healthy learner.

    “but in principle, pitch changes of 10 % should be noticeable by almost every healthy learner.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The optimal motor-learning condition is an environment that challenges users according to their actual performance, learning progress, individual skills, and biomechanics.

    “In general, the optimal learning condition may be given in an environment that challenges users depending on actual performance, learning progress, individual skills, and biomechanics.”
17 of 17

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

1 of 1

Citations

Cites

Show all 337 references

Research works printed but not linked: 19

  1. Chollet, D., Madani, M., & Micallef, J. P. (1992). Biomechanics and medicine in swimming, chapter Effects of two types of biomechanical bio-feedback on crawl performance (pp. 57–62). London: E & FN Spon.
  2. Chollet, D., Micallef, J. P., & Rabischong, P. (1988). Swimming Science V, chapter Biomechanical signals for external biofeedback to improve swimming techniques (pp. 389–396). Champaign, Illinois: Human Kinetics Books.
  3. Effenberg, A. O. (2000b). Zum Potential komplexer akustischer Bewegungsinformationen für die Technikansteuerung. Leistungssport, 5, 19–25.
  4. Effenberg, A., & Mechling, H. (1999). Zur Funktion audiomotorischer Verhaltenskomponenten. Sportwissenschaft, 29, 200–215.
  5. Effenberg, A. O., & Mechling, H. (1998). Bewegung hörbar machen — Warum? Zur Perspektive einer systematischen Umsetzung von Bewegung in Klänge. Psychologie und Sport, 5(1), 28–38.
  6. Flash, T., & Gurevich, I. (1991). Human motor adaptation to external loads (Vol. 13).
  7. Grey, J. M. (1975). An Exploration of Musical Timbre. PhD thesis, CCRMA Dept. of Music, Stanford University.
  8. Ho, C., Basdogan, C., Slater, M., Durlach, N., & Srinivasan, M. (1998). An experiment on the influence of haptic communication on the sense of being together. In BT Presence Workshop. Citeseer.
  9. Kruber, D. (1984). Untersuchung zur visuellen Gestaltung von Arbeitskarten im Sport. In R. Daugs (Ed.), 1. Berliner Workshop Medien im Sport: Visualisation sensomotorischer Lehrmedien (pp. 67–79). Berlin, Germany: Akademieschrift der FVA des DSB.
  10. Mononen, K. (2007). The effect of augmented feedback on motor skill learning in shooting. PhD thesis, University of Jyväskylä, Finland.
  11. Neuhoff, J. G., & Wayand, J. (2002). Pitch change, sonification, and musical expertise: Which way is up? In International Conference on Auditory Displays, Kyoto, Japan.
  12. Ohta, K., Umegaki, K., Murofushi, K., A., K., & Sakurai, S. (2009). Training aid system for hammer throw based on accelerometry. In Proceedings of the XXIInd Congress of the International Society of Biomechanics.
  13. Rochat, P., & Senders, S. (1991). Active touch in infancy: Action systems in development. Infant attention: Biological constraints and the influence of experience (pp. 412–442).
  14. Underwood, S. M. (2009). Effects of augmented real-time auditory feedback on top-level precision shoting performance. Master’s thesis, University of Kentucky.
  15. Van der Linde, R. Q., Lammertse, P., Frederiksen, E., & Ruiter, B. (2002). The hapticmaster, a new high-performance haptic interface. In Proceedings of Eurohaptics (pp. 1–5). Citeseer.
  16. Vogt, K. (2008). Sonification in computational physics-qcd-audio. In Proceedings of SysMus-1st International Conference of Students of Systematic Musicology, Graz, Austria.
  17. Walker, B. N., & Nees, M. A. (2011). Theory of sonification, volume The Sonification Handbook. New York: Academic Press.
  18. Wallis, I., Ingalls, T., Rikakis, T., Olson, L., Chen, Y., Xu, W., & Sundaram, H. (2007). Real-time sonification of movement for an immersive stroke rehabilitation environment. In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Auditory Display, Montréal, Canada.
  19. Yamamoto, G., Shiraki, K., Takahata, M., Sakane, Y., & Takebayashi, Y. (2004). Multimodal knowledge for designing new sound environments. In The International Conference on Human Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services. Citeseer.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Items 101–200 of 1,398

Metadata

Authors
Sigrist, R., Rauter, G., Riener, R., & Wolf, P.
Affiliations
ETH Zurich (CH)
Corresponding author
Sigrist, Roland
Venue
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
Published
2012-11-07
Volume
20
Issue
1
Pages
21-53
ISSN
  • 1069-9384 (ISSN-L)
  • 1531-5320
OpenAlex
W2058543238
Cited by
1,416
References
337
Citations by year
2026: 173 · 2025: 135 · 2024: 114 · 2023: 108 · 2022: 120 · 2021: 126 · 2020: 114 · 2019: 125 · 2018: 114 · 2017: 89 · 2016: 76 · 2015: 56 · 2014: 37 · 2013: 25
FWCI
2.99
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Psychonomic Bulletin & Review (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (acceptedVersion, other-oa)
  • reroDoc Digital Library (submittedVersion)
  • Repository for Publications and Research Data (ETH Zurich) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • ETH Zürich Research Collection
  • Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Motor Control and Adaptation
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation › Sports and Physical Education Research
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Sport Psychology and Performance
Keywords
augmented feedback, motor learning, visual feedback, auditory feedback, haptic feedback, multimodal feedback, motor learning theory
MeSH terms
Acoustic Stimulation, Humans, Learning, Motor Skills, Photic Stimulation, Feedback, Psychological, Feedback, Sensory

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

A language model drew the claims from the paper on 2026-09-28, under version 3 of the claim definition (model deepseek-v4.1-flash, prompt extract-v3).

A second model labelled each claim on 2026-09-28 (model jev-1.13-20260917, definition revision gold-guideline-v0.2).

Cited sources are checked with a language model’s help (gpt-6-sol).

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review